Mike Duncan has served as the President of the Kentucky Bankers Association, the Director of the Cleveland Federal Reserve Bank Cincinnati Branch, and is currently the principal owner of two community banks with five offices in eastern Kentucky.

From 1989-91, he worked in the Bush White House as Assistant Director of Public Liaison.

In 1998, he took a leave of absence from his business and chaired Jim Bunning’s successful U.S. Senate race

President George W. Bush appointed him to the President’s Commission on White House Fellows in 2001 and nominated him to the Tennessee Valley Authority Board, a position to which he was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, in March 2006.

Mike Duncan was General Counsel of the Republican National Committee (RNC) from July 10, 2002 until his election as Chairman. He previously was elected Treasurer of the RNC in January 2001.

Duncan has served the republican party at every level from precinct captain, county chairman, state chairman, to national officer. He was a delegate to the 1972, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Republican National Conventions.

Mike Duncan is one of the few persons ever to serve on the four standing convention committees at the RNC. He was elected to serve as the 15th Chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority in May 2009 and served until May 2010.

Duncan ran for reelection in the 2009 RNC Chairmanship Election, but dropped out after the third round of balloting when elections were held on January 30, 2009 in Washington, D.C. Michael S. Steele was later that day elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee.

"Coal offers energy security at low prices that can be achieved in an environmentally sound way."

"There is a direct link between coal-based, low-cost electricity and economic prosperity...On all fronts, we need a strong sense of urgency to support the people and the industry who have fueled the American Dream, and who will continue to do so."

“It is a passion,” Duncan said. “Both my grandfathers worked in mines. It was more of a personal thing than anything else. I saw the need. I think I understand the need that a country can’t have a defensible energy policy unless coal is a part of that.”

“We have to use this period before the election to increase the dialogue on energy and coal production”

"EPA is waging a war on coal, and a war on affordable electricity prices and jobs. EPA continues to ignore the damage that its new regulations are causing to the U.S. economy and to states that depend on coal for jobs and affordable electricity,”

Other congressman Duncan enjoys a close relationship with include Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), who represents the chairman's district in Kentucky, and his former RNC co-Chair RNC Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.).

Unlike the other candidates for the RNC's chairmanship, Duncan has not come out against the $700 billion financial bailout dubbed the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

While he has refused to answer whether he believes burning coal contributes to climate change, in his letter to the New York Times, he acknowledges that closing down coal plants would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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